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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23921122">Take Heed My Son, The Darkness Will Come</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisingShadows/pseuds/RisingShadows'>RisingShadows</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>1917 (Movie 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Religious Imagery &amp; Symbolism</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:48:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,533</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23921122</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisingShadows/pseuds/RisingShadows</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>No one questioned the shadow of wings at his back, the halo of sunlight around his head, the guilt in glittering eyes. <br/>No one questioned the appearance of a soldier they had never seen before.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tom Blake &amp; William Schofield</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>2nd devons writing challenges</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Take Heed My Son, The Darkness Will Come</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>When William Schofield had first appeared, a wraith among the men with eyes that seemed almost to glow when the light hit them just right, no one questioned it. No one questioned the arrival of another man come to die, no one questioned the pale figure with the glittering eyes and the solemn silence. </p>
<p>No one questioned the shadow of wings at his back, the halo of sunlight around his head, the guilt in glittering eyes. </p>
<p>No one questioned the grief in his eyes as they prepared for the Somme, the weeping sadness that trailed after him like wings unfurled to drag in the mud, the pain that drifted across his face as they murmured of home. Of childhood sweethearts, of mothers, and fathers, brothers and sisters. Sons and daughters. </p>
<p>His time will come, his task will make itself clear. Will was for a time no more than any other soldier. No, he was a pawn in a different game. Sent to play at being a different kind of soldier as was his duty. Sent to complete one task, until then, he would wait. Wait for the one he was sent to guide, wait for the task to make itself known. </p>
<p>Will was a soldier in a different war, and yet, Will heard the calls. Heard the murmured prayers of thousands as they prepared to go once more into war. Heard the desperate calls, the desperate hoarse requests. </p>
<p>Will knew which ones would be answered, and for which ones it was already too late. Knew which ones he could aid, could offer the chance when they fell and he lifted them to their feet. When he dragged them free of the mud and muck of the battlefield and offered them the miracle they had begged for.</p>
<p>There were laws to what he could do, but even those could be bent when he heard the call and no other could claim he hadn’t followed the orders passed down to him. </p>
<p>And just as quickly, they forgot him once more. He knew the rumors, heard the stories they told, of a guardian that wandered the battlefield. It was amusing, to hear what they thought of the minor gifts he could offer, to hear what they thought to be miracles and know he could have done so much more if only he had not been constrained by the rules laid upon him when he was first sent to follow in their shadows.</p>
<p>To guide those who fell beyond this battlefield, to offer what he could to those who still lived. Who still breathed, and fought on where so many had already fallen. Where fear and death clung to the ground and Will could barely think for the stench of it. </p>
<p>And where before no one had thought to look for the shadow of wings at his back, for the halo around his head, for the grief in glittering eyes. </p>
<p>Where before no one had looked, now it would not matter. Not when wings were weighed down by mud and muck, blood and grime and the taste of death and fear that filled his mouth when he set foot on the torn battlefield. Not when the halo around his head was dimmed in the shadow of so many dead, dimmed with the weight of so many souls he could have saved. </p>
<p>Not when glittering eyes held nothing but the pain of grief and sorrow and the solemn sadness born of it.  </p>
<p>And then he came. A boy, no older than so many others who Will had already guided on, no older than so many who had already fallen, no older than so many Will had dragged from the mud of this battlefield. </p>
<p>No older than some of the few he had breathed life into when they had fallen before their time. No, he was still a boy, a child compared to so many, compared to Will who had seen eons and would see eons more before he was returned to the ashes of the galaxies he had been created from. </p>
<p>A boy who glowed when Will turned to watch him walk past and Will knew. The task he had been waiting for had come. Trailing in the boys shadow as he wandered the trenches just as any soldier would when they first arrived. </p>
<p>Even when he turned, a wide smile on his face that he offered to Will, as if Will was nothing more than a shadow meant to be forgotten. And Will found himself intrigued. Drawing closer to the boy over the weeks he had to follow him, over the weeks where there was no true danger he couldn’t avert with the slightest of pushes. </p>
<p>He knew, soon the task would come. And with it the danger that followed every boy, every man, every soldier in this war. Wills task would make itself known and he would offer what aid was expected of him to the boy. </p>
<p>Thomas Blake on the other hand, seemed not to notice the way soldiers eyes slid past Will as if he wasn’t there. Or the odd looks he garnered when he wandered out to tree Will liked to sit against, to that small slice of living greenery next to chasm Will could always sense. No, Blake never noticed the oddities that surrounded him, even as he drew close enough to call himself his friend. </p>
<p>With the boy asleep at his side it was easy to be caught in the warmth that drew him to the boy, that would draw any of his siblings to him had they been close enough. The boy had no halo, no wings draped from his shoulder, but he glowed just as any of Will’s siblings would. Just as Will had before he had found himself standing amidst the fear and death that seeped from No-Man’s land. </p>
<p>Then, the call came. The boy was called for a mission.</p>
<p>“Pick a man, bring your kit.”</p>
<p>And Will followed in his shadow, followed in the place of another soldier when the boy offered him his hand. And he took it, spread his wings to shield the boy as best he could as they trudged through the mud of no-man's land. </p>
<p>As they walked through the silent shadows of the trenches. As the world screamed and Will was buried beneath stone and dust. Was pulled from the darkness by a strong hand, by the glow he could follow even in the darkest of nights. </p>
<p>Stood in the remnants of a farmhouse, surrounded by the echoes of a life torn apart by war. Surrounded by the echoes of prayers unanswered, surrounded by the pain of fear and loss. Death on his tongue, weighing down the shadow of wings at his back. </p>
<p>Watched as death fell from the sky, and offered what kindness he could in dragging the man who fell from the burning remnants of his craft at the boys request. Pushed away to draw water, to give this man that last chance at survival though Will could feel his time was coming. </p>
<p>And so he turned, and so the boy fell, and so he promised. </p>
<p>And so he continued. Walked the path to the brother he had sought to save, as feathers fell from shredded wings and the halo above his head cracked. As glittering eyes watched a church burn. Offered a woman, a babe milk he had not had before. As he held a hand over a boys mouth and begged for silence. </p>
<p>As he fell into a river, as he thrashed, wings weighed down by running water, Dragging him beneath the surface as he begged for this last chance. As he begged as so many soldiers had begged as he fell. And cherry blossoms drifted above him and he dragged himself from the water. Shook out waterlogged feathers and turned to listen to a song on the wind, to prayers that filled his ears and echoed as if a beat all their own beside his heart.  </p>
<p>As the halo above his head shattered as he offered the letter, shattered as the man turned away. Shattered as he begged, begged the man to see, as death echoed around him. As those he was too late to save fell and the shadow of wings at his back grew heavy. </p>
<p>The man took the letter and Will wandered, in search of a brother he had been sent to save. </p>
<p>As he found him, guiding those that lived to aid. As he stood face to face with a man that glowed as his brother had and all he could offer was the cold rings taken from a cooling body. Was a lie that cut at his throat and a request he had no right too. </p>
<p>The man turned away, and Will understood. By the end of the day they would forget the messenger. They would forget the shadow of broken wings and tattered feathers. They would forget the shattered halo that cast broken shadows. </p>
<p>They would forget broken eyes that glittered with grief, with sorrow unspoken. And he would be gone. </p>
<p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>Rest now child, the day is done</p>
  <p>The dark comes for everything</p>
  <p>Inside the heart of everyone</p>
  <p>There lives infinity</p>
</blockquote>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Title and last few song lyrics taken from Symmetry - Dark Version by SYML</p>
<p>Okay this was for the 2nd Devons prompts and I made myself sad writing it. Don't really know if i think this is good or terrible and I am definitely not faithful to any actual religious depictions of angels please don't hold that against me.<br/>Let me know what you think though! This was fun to write if sad.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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